In Toni Morrison’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech and David Foster Wallace’s college graduation commencement speech, each offered consistent qualities of self choice and self value. These similarities contributed to the essence of the fact that life is full of choices. Morrison’s speech brought values of choosing what to say and how, what we say, is interpreted differently through each set of human's ears and how these humans choose to hear it or choose to respond to it. In Wallace’s speech, it is simply understood that you may think life revolves around you, however, when you choose to put yourself or think about putting yourself in other people’s lives, life is just the same and life goes on. Another similarity is how the aspect of religion plays a part in both speeches. In Wallace's he uses it as a metaphor for life, stating that "The only choice we get is what to worship" mirroring the fact that we get to choose how we live our life. In Morrison's speech she also uses religion to represent something, she uses the tower of babel to show the power and strength of language. A key difference in these two speeches is the audience they are speaking to. In Wallace’s speech, he is speaking to a group of graduating college students embarking on the next journey in life, sort of transitioning these students to what life is really like outside the life of school and stress, giving them a whole other outlook on life, while Morrison’s audience includes some of the most wealthy, prominent, upper class, powerful citizens of the United States who use language as a very powerful tool, either to deceive, gain power, gain knowledge and to be heard, just like how she used this speech and the power of language to inspire the African American community and her audience.
I thought that your analysis was very accurate because both texts talked about life and choices and basically how we all have the power to choose our own destiny. I also agreed that Wallace talks about the basic human nature in us all and how we tend to get stuck on ourselves and that it's easy to forget about other. One way that I can relate to This is Water is that I've learned that you never really know what's going on in somebody else's life because we judge based on our own experiences. I also like how you acknowledged that language can be like a weapon it can be used for good or evil and corruption.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog post, I agree with your similarities and differences. I like your idea of stating that life is full of choices. I also agree that Wallace alludes to a younger group of people while Morrison alludes to leaders of the world. I think that both speeches have important value to the audience being spoken too. Wallace is giving graduates advice on the real world reality that they are about to face while Morrison is giving leaders of the world the advice that language is sacred and should not be abused or taken to granted. I like your comment about Wallace giving them another outlook onto life, while I also think that Morrison is giving the leaders another outlook on language and why it should not be abused because it is the foundation for the world. I also want to add that another similarity in the two speeches is the full circle ending. Morrison uses a metaphor about a bird in the beginning and end, while Wallace uses a metaphor about two fish swimming in water in the beginning and end. Overall I agree with your post and the common theme that life is full of choices.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your analyzation of the two text, both your similarities and differences accurately show your understanding of what both writers are trying to portray. The way both authors express how religion plays a key role in our futures outcome is a key point to how these weighting and so similar, yet the way that both authors portray how religion effects us, also shows the main difference between both Wallace and Morrison. I also like your though of how Wallace writing tells us to give in to our human nature of being self centered. Your ability to make a connection between the two text was outstanding, along with the key points you made.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis of both texts. Both do hit upon the topic that we choose what we say and do. Your notice of how religion plays a major part in both speeches made me reread both so that i could get a grasp of both speeches and see what what you saw. Your insight into how we as humans think that everything revolves around us and how that if we put ourselves into another person's shoes life just continues to keep going on. Your post was very insightful and made me look at different things in the two texts that I hadn't noticed or would have noticed if I had not read your post. After reading your post I have determined that I very much agree with what you have written and read from both "This is Water" and the "Nobel Lecture."
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